A Review of the Principal Questions in Morals

Do moral facts give us reasons to act? Michael Smith maps three versions of moral rationalism and argues for the most plausible one. A clear entry point into the contemporary debate.

Michael Smith

Kant argues that reason alone, not feelings or consequences, tells us what we ought to do. The book that introduced the categorical imperative and the boldest statement of moral rationalism.

Immanuel Kant

The Cambridge Platonist Ralph Cudworth argues that right and wrong are as unchangeable as the truths of geometry, not mere commands of God or the state. A founding text of moral rationalism, in the original 1731 edition.

Ralph Cudworth